All Too Unwell?
November 23, 2021
Taylor Swift released “Red (Taylor’s Version)” on Nov. 12, 2021, which still has the original songs off “Red”, which was released in 2012. The album is full of the 30 songs Swift had originally written for “Red”, including a ten minute version of “All Too Well Now nine years later, with Swift’s ownership, the album is topping the charts.
On the same day, a short film dedicated to “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”, was written and directed by Swift herself, premiered. Starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, the two actors play a couple whose relationship we see crash and burn throughout the film. Many fans rumor that the film is based off of Swift and her now ex-boyfriend, Jake Gyllenhaal, who she was dating/breaking up with at the time when she first wrote the song. The film opens to Sink and O’Brien’s characters laying in bed, whispering to each other. At the beginning of their new relationship, it seems they are enthralled with each other.
The film breaks into seven parts, starting with “An Upstate Escape.” The happy couple goes to Upstate New York where they’re shown smiling and kissing like nothing could go wrong, but the most important part of this section is when Sink’s character puts down her red scarf in the cabin they are staying at. Then going into “The First Crack in the Glass,” we start to see the couple’s honeymoon phase break at a dinner party. At the dinner O’Brien’s character drops Sink’s hand, which prompts a fight between the two. The fight doesn’t last long as the film goes into “Are you real?” where the couple goes back to their usual gleeful selves.
That again doesn’t last long as it transitions to “The Breaking Point” and O’Brien’s character breaks up with Sink’s characters. Sink’s character is heartbroken and crying until her 21st birthday party, which O’Brien’s character doesn’t go to. Through the next two parts, “The Reeling” and “The Remembering”, we mostly see Sink’s character and how she’s reacting to the breakup. We also are shown O’Brien’s character walking the street alone and there’s flashbacks of them before the breakup, with the good and the bad.
The final part is called “Thirteen Years Gone.” Sink’s character is replaced with Swift, and is now an author at her book reading. The last scenes in the film is of Swift’s character reading her book aloud, and as the camera pans outside, the older version of O’Brien’s character is watching through the window. Swift is infamous for leaving easter eggs for her fans, and this film wasn’t excluded from that. The last time O’Brien’s character is shown, he’s wearing the same red scarf that Sink, Swift’s character, left behind in the beginning.
